Final Fantasy 16’s PC release sounds pretty close, with a demo first so you can test its “somewhat high” specs

11.03.2024 - 18:23 / rockpapershotgun.com / Naoki Yoshida / Square Enix / You Can

While we’re yet to get a hard release date for Final Fantasy 16 on PC, it sounds like it won’t be too far off. That’s going by recent comments by producer Naoki Yoshida, who also suggested we can expect a demo before it’s out - which should also be a good chance to test your rig against its apparently hefty hardware requirements.

Yoshi-P told Game Informer that Final Fantasy XVI’s PC port is currently in “the final stages of optimisation”, adding that announcing a release date may depend on being able to tell players exactly what they’ll need to gaze upon a lovely Ultra HD Clive (and all those nice summon effects too, I suppose) on their monitors.

It sounds like you’ll probably need a fairly powerful machine, though, as Yoshida said that the system requirements are currently “looking to be somewhat high”. That lines up with his suggestion late last year that an SSD would be essential to run the game at all, potentially little surprise given it was originally developed as a PlayStation 5 exclusive - a console that has a high-speed SSD as default.

“Even if we did our best to adjust the GPU, in FF16, a game where loading speed is critical, the HDD would be a pain,” Yoshida said at the time. “Of course, we will do our best to optimise as much as possible, but we cannot overcome the hardware barrier alone, so please consider that an SSD is a must.”

Though Yoshida didn’t elaborate on what Final Fantasy 16’s GPU or CPU requirements might be based on that “somewhat high” expectation, hopefully the current optimisation process might bring down the barrier to entry for as many folks as possible.

If you’re concerned that your slightly older graphics card or processor might struggle, you should at least get the chance to give them a test drive without sinking any money, as Yoshida said that the team hopes to release a demo before FF16 hits PC in full. Whether that will be the same demo released ahead of its PS5 launch - which covered its prologue and offered a look at a later section, with progress carrying over to the main game - remains to be seen.

“We can't really talk about too much in terms of details of when it's going to come out – I think in a little bit more time we'll be in a better place to announce things,” Yoshida said.

As for Final Fantasy 16 itself, while a release date is still TBC, Yoshida offered assurance that it should be sometime in the next 12 months (at most).

“One thing's for sure: It won't be too distant in the future; it won't be a year, it won't be two years, it will probably be shorter than that, so stay tuned,” he said.